


The Fox and the... Dragon?

by Bumpkin



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Didn't Know They Were Dating, Dragon Tim Drake, Fox Jason Todd, JayTim Spooktober 2020, M/M, Pre-Slash, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27076489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bumpkin/pseuds/Bumpkin
Summary: Didn't know they were dating, being blown up and kidnapped for ransom during down-time, and secrets exposed - just a regular week for Jay and Tim.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 16
Kudos: 205
Collections: JayTimWeek





	The Fox and the... Dragon?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the JayTim Spooktober event on Tumblr. Betaed by the amazing chibi_nightowl!

The Fox and the... Dragon?

By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Rated T  
Pre-Slash  
(Wordcount: 2322)

Jay wondered when this would blow up in his face. 

Meeting up with Tim for drinks in civvies. Again. For the sixth time. What was he thinking? Why did he keep agreeing when the kid asked him to do it?

Yeah sure, they’d been getting along a lot better recently — even teamed up more often than not lately when they were suited up — but wasn’t getting drinks together as themselves taking the reconciliation a bit too far?

Except it kept happening, and now it felt a lot less like reconciliation and more like they were almost dating.

Jason was baffled. 

But maybe he was reading too much into things, maybe Tim didn’t see their civilian meetings the same way he did. He couldn’t, could he? Tim wasn’t that forgiving— right? Jason had attacked him rather viciously more than once, and fuck— almost killed him twice. There was no way that Tim would ever think of him as a possible romantic partner, not after all that. Tim just kept coming to these meetings because it was best for Gotham that all her protectors were civil with each other, if not friendly. 

He had himself convinced that the other man was only meeting up with him out of a sense of duty right up until he saw how Tim lit up when he spotted him approaching. 

Well damn. 

Uncertain how to determine how he felt about this, he fell back on old Crime Alley habits— when in doubt, brazen it out.

“Hey.” Giving the younger man a very thorough elevator look, he leered. “Looking pretty good there, Timbo.”

Tim — still dressed in his power suit from WE — just gave him a sour look. “Thanks,” he said dryly. “I would have changed into something a little less conspicuous, but my meeting ran long and I didn’t want to be late.”

Jason was kind enough to not say anything about how the tops of Tim’s ears went pink at his compliment and leer. He definitely took note of it though. 

“Anyway, before we head to dinner, do you mind dropping by my place with me so I can get changed?”

“Ya wanna slip into something more comfortable?” Jason asked with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Fine by me.”

Tim was surprised into a laugh at the cheesy line, and it’s over the top delivery. He shook his head at Jason as they fell into step heading towards Tim’s car. “I think Dick being one of our largest role models as children has permanently warped our senses of humour.”

“Hmm,” Jason pretended to be thoughtful, “you could be right.”

Tim laughed again and they fell into an easy conversation about nothing at all while they made their way to Tim’s car. It was easy and comfortable, and it really was freaking Jason out.

He was still trying to assimilate the idea that he and Tim had been ‘almost’-dating without him realizing it. The last thing he wanted to do was make an ass out of himself by trying to talk to Tim about it before he’d thought things through and decided what his own feelings were.

Not only that, he had a more personal reason to hold back from getting much closer with the other man quite yet. That little thing about his family history where the full moon was a bit of an issue— Todd being another word for fox wasn’t just academic in his case, it was more _descriptive_. 

It had been hard enough for him to wrap his head around the first time he changed after his little swim in the Lazarus Pit — fucking primordial sludge repairing his ancestral DNA rather than just leaving him what he was born with. He didn’t even know how to begin to tell someone else about the moon changing him into a fox and not be thought of as a lunatic. 

Or, maybe that should be _as_ a lunatic, considering that the moon was the reason he changed? _Who the fuck knows?_ Regardless, it was still way too early, relationship-wise, to get into it— especially since he wasn’t sure they were actually in a relationship.

Jason firmly regulated the thoughts to the back of his mind seeing as the full moon was two nights away, and set out to enjoy the evening with Tim. Everything else was something for his future-self to deal with at a much later date. Right now, he only had to worry about how the rest of the night played out.

They made it to Tim’s car and he clicked the unlock button on his keychain remote, which is when all hell broke loose. Tim was blown into Jason’s arms as they both went flying as the car exploded in a fireball. Jason barely had time to understand what had happened when he hit something and… it all went black.

* * *

Jason woke to the sound of Tim’s voice grumbling under his breath. “... lazy assholes, they can shove their fucking ransom demands up their fucking asses.” He opened his eyes to see that Tim was pacing the length of their cell as he kept muttering imprecations against their kidnappers. He was also — Jason noted — decidedly dressed down from what he’d been wearing before as he was now only clad in a cheap t-shirt and jogging pants with no shoes. A quick glance at his own attire let him know he’d been subjected to the same treatment. 

He cleared his throat as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and Tim’s attention was drawn to him. “I take it that the car bomb was just a distraction to let the assholes grab you and I was just collateral damage?” 

“Yeah, sorry about this.” Tim’s shoulders slumped. “They grabbed you too as you were obviously with me.” His lips quirked up in an involuntary smile. “Although, the other reason they might have brought you along, is because it seemed that even unconscious they couldn’t get you to let go of me. Thanks by the way, for taking the brunt of the fall.” 

“No big.” Jay coughed a bit and was thankful his complexion didn’t show blushes well, then he redirected. “How long have I been out?”

“Over 24 hours, but I don’t know how much more than that.” Tim’s voice was grim. “Seems they didn’t have the right dosage of the knock-out drugs for someone your size so they just gave you two of the doses for a person of my size. Doesn’t help that they miscalculated how much they needed for my size either, they were a bit worried when I was out longer than they expected too.”

“They gave us knock-out drugs on top of blowing us up?” Jason was ticked and the burst of adrenaline allowed him to sit up straighter. “They could’ve killed us! What the fuck? How would they have gotten their ransom then?”

“Yeah, they don’t seem to be the brightest bulbs around.” Tim agreed. He crossed the cell and sat down beside Jason, who lifted an arm to wrap it around the smaller man when he felt how cold the other was. “They were at least smart enough to get us out of Gotham and strip us of our gear while we were out. I have no idea where we are, or how long we were out before I woke up. I only know about the over 24 hours thing because I overheard them talking.”

Jason’s eyes were drawn to the large barred window in their cell that he’d barely made note of before. It was well past dusk but it was still very bright outside and that could only mean one thing… it was the full moon.

Shit.

Seems he wasn’t going to be able to hold off on the discussion about his familial quirk like he’d wanted to after all. When the light of the full moon hit, he wouldn’t have a choice about changing. He really hoped that Tim was the kind of guy to take something like his maybe-boyfriend changing into a larger than usual fox in stride, because they really weren’t in the right stage of the relationship to be sharing these kinds of secrets. There was that to think about too, how Jason really, really, didn’t want Batman — no metas allowed in Gotham — to know. 

He decided he probably should give Tim a bit of warning so that he wouldn’t be taken completely by surprise, “Uh, Tim-”

But Tim had started to talk at the same time. “Listen, Jay-”

They both stopped to let the other talk, but just then the moon’s light streamed into the room. Jason felt the change begin deep in his bones and pushed away from Tim so that he could hurriedly ditch his clothes before it hit, the last thing he wanted was to be tangled up when the change finished. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Tim was scrambling to undress as well. He wondered why, but couldn’t think of it more as the change took over in a rush that overloaded his senses.

When he came back to himself, he looked over to see how Tim was taking his altered state and could only stare. 

_Holy. Motherfucking. Shit!_

It seemed he hadn’t been the only one who’d been keeping secrets... because where Tim should be, was a dragon. Granted, it wasn’t a large dragon — conservation of mass and all that had to be taken into consideration — the head and body about the size of a Scottish Terrier, a long tail, and with a wingspan large enough to allow him to fly. The scales of the small dragon were an iridescent blue-black that was very like Tim’s hair, and the wide eyes meeting his own were Tim’s crystalline blue.

Jason yipped and the dragon that _had_ to be Tim, blinked.

_Well, this certainly changes things_ ; Jason thought to himself, halfway to hysterical. _Jesus, what are the odds that two of Batman’s Robins are shapeshifters?!_ It boggled the mind. 

When he just continued to stare, Tim lost patience and bopped him one with his tail. Jason shook himself out of his shock and nodded. Right, escaping, that’s what he should be focused on. Dammit, they should have talked more before this because how were they going to plan when neither of them could talk?

Tim rolled his eyes and extended a claw, he sketched out a quick plan that would be easy enough at the sizes they were now— even if Jason was a _very_ large fox. He scuffed out the plan with a paw and bounded over to the window after the dragon. 

There was no glass and the bars didn’t cause them any trouble with their smaller sizes... well, almost no trouble. Tim had to wriggle in an undignified manner to get his wings through, and Jason’s shoulders were wide enough in his fox form to still manage to catch a bit. But a few shed scales later and with a small amount of fur sacrificed, they were out and looking for another entrance into the building to look for their stuff. They weren’t leaving anything behind.

It didn’t take long to find their way in, or their belongings once they did. The hard part was gathering it all together into a bundle compact enough for Tim to carry as he flew, but that was solved when Jason scooped it all into his leather jacket and, with a great deal of effort, zipped it shut. Tim grabbed both sleeves in one claw and the other claw gripped the bottom so that nothing spilled out. 

Good enough, time to leave.

Back outside, Tim left the jacket-bundle with Jason while he flew high to try and figure out where they were in relation to Gotham. It didn’t take him long and he drew a quick map in the dirt upon landing to show Jason where they were. 

Jason nodded, scuffed out Tim’s artwork again, and they were off.

As they ran, Jason thought about the future. He had gathered from Tim’s notations that they were too far from Gotham to make it home in one night with him stuck running on all fours, but they would get close enough that when the moon set and they changed back, it wouldn’t be difficult to get the rest of the way home. He didn’t mind, the remainder of their trip in their human forms would be the perfect time for them to talk.

Hoo-boy, did they have a lot to talk about.

False dawn was still streaking the sky when Tim and Jason faced each other as humans again. By mutual agreement, they both dressed before speaking — it was cold, unfortunate things happened to male anatomy in the cold — but after that they both started speaking at the same time. 

“So…”

“Well, I guess…”

Tim closed his mouth and motioned for Jason to go first.

“So, Drake is another word for dragon,” he said with a smile.

Tim smirked. “Yeah, and Todd is another word for fox.” 

“Yep.” Jason shook his head and said out loud what he’d thought back in the cell. “What are the odds that two of Batman’s Robins are shapeshifters?”

“Smaller than two of his adopted sons starting to date?” Tim offered hopefully.

Jason grinned. “That sounds about right. What do you say to finishing our interrupted date at your place in comfort?”

Tim grabbed Jason’s hand to draw him close. Jason let him, and when he got close enough, he wrapped his free arm around the smaller man’s waist. Tim draped his free arm over Jason’s shoulder and leaned in close so that when he spoke the words were like tiny kisses on Jason’s mouth. “I’d say that sounds ideal.”

Jason growled at the tease and covered the millimeters barely separating them to give him a real kiss. 


End file.
